Maisons du Monde deep into the red

Falling sales pushed Maisons Du Monde into a loss last year. Price cuts and a rationalisation of the product range should help the French home furnishing chain get back on its feet.

4,000 price cuts

Following the recent bankruptcy of Casa, French chain Maisons du Monde also comes with bad news. The home decoration retailer saw sales fall 11.2% to 1 billion euros last year, after sales were also down 9.3% in 2023. That resulted in a net loss of as much as 115 million euros, compared to a profit of 8.8 million a year earlier. Those red figures are admittedly partly explained by 81 million euros of extraordinary depreciation. Operating profit (EBIT) was 1.2 million euros, compared to 45.8 million in 2023, and that despite 45 million euros of cost savings.

The home furnishing chain attributes the poor figures to a difficult context for the home furnishing and decoration sector, exacerbated by unfavourable macroeconomic factors. To achieve a turnaround, the retailer plans to save another 100 million in costs. To attract customers again, 4,000 products will be reduced in price. Maisons du Monde is also slimming down its assortment and rolling out its new store concept: 63 stores were redesigned.

Maisons du Monde operates 338 stores in nine countries: besides France, these include Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.